Taoiseach accuses British government of stalling Brexit talks

The Taoiseach has accused Theresa May's government of stalling Brexit talks and has said other countries will not want to enter trade deals with Britain if they do not honour commitments with the EU.

Leo Varadkar has said he will be asking EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker to continue to stand by Ireland as negotiations on the border issue remain in deadlock.

However, Mr Varadkar said it is "too early" to call for an extra EU Council meeting ahead of Octobers crunch meeting. This had been recently suggested by former Taoiseach Enda Kenny who said he is “appalled” by what is happening in politics in Britain.

President Juncker is due to visit Ireland tomorrow where he will address both the Dáil and the Seanad, he will be accompanied by the EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier.

Speaking in Dublin this morning, Mr Varadkar said: "What I will be asking Michel Barnier and President Juncker when they come to Dublin tomorrow, really it is to stand behind Ireland.

"It is our view that we haven't seen sufficient progress from the United kingdom in the last couple of months, we had good politicatical agreement in December, we had further progress in March where they accepted that there had to be a backstop as part of the withdrawal agreement but since then quite frankly progress has stalled."

He added: "The United Kingdom is a country that is talking about going global, talking about making trade deals all over the world, how could anyone make a deal with a county that doesn't stand by it's commitments?"